Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

“There are moments when I think, why am I doing this again?  But otherwise I think it was the right decision.” A few minutes before we started running together Kaneenika had just completed 700 miles.  It happened in the early part of the morning.  Before the sun bore down and the noise of a busy city swept over the course.

At this time the weather was pleasant and still. Kaneenika was running briefly with her friend Kanala. Who both come from Slovakia and on many mornin

Sopan did not come and physically run the race here last year, but in a unique way he was a big part of Ashprihanal’s tremendous world record experience back then.

“We talked a lot every day on the phone.  But then he helped me and inspired me.  I felt I was part of the race.” The strain and effort of Ashprihanal’s pursuit of a new world record was tremendous.  The daily phone chats that went on for sometimes hours nearly every night was a great way for Ashprihanal to find a way to sometimes decompress. This year they need no excuse to chat and find relief from the long hard days that seem to stretch out endlessly in front of them.  The two runners have a very special bond and when you see them running side by side they carry on the kind of effortless banter that is particular to those who are the closes of friends. To continue, click here

In all the many years I have chased after Ashprihanal Aalto while he has been running a multi day race I have never ever gotten even close.  Whether it be dashing around a one mile loop in Flushing Meadow or even now while he runs the short easily accessible half mile block in Jamaica Queens. It is not that he is unapproachable, or that he runs too fast (which is still plenty fast for me).  It is just that there is something particularly elusive if not incomprehensible about this 45 year old running phenom from Helsinki. Who will without question set a new record this summer when he completes the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race for the 14th time.

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*editors note*  This does also have to occur before the end of 52 days each summer, so the major portion of the year remains without him endlessly running there.